Professor Lipton started a conversation about sex today, and I have to say it quickly quieted the class down. The girl beside me, and I do not know her name, looked a little taken aback by it all. The “I enjoy sex too” comment definitely sent a pulse around the room. It is difficult to think of authority figures having sex. It is like thinking about your own parents having sex. Still, it was a good topic of conversation and I am sure, considering Professor Lipton’s past experience with seeing friends die of AIDS, a subject that he felt deeply. I could hear a certain urgency in his voice. Unlike my classmates, it has been awhile since someone lectured me on safe sexual practices, so I actually enjoyed that aspect of it.
I too can remember the panic and wide spread fear that HIV/AIDS once caused across North America. It is wierd that today you actually hear very little about it except as it relates to Africa. Not so long ago it was America that was in an AIDS epidemic and people really feared it. It lead to wide spread availability of free condoms at high schools, and universities, at least for awhile. It also led to wide spread lectures about how abstinence is great. That’s what I got in high school as sex education, basically, “Just Say No.” Essentially, it was a rip-off the 1980’s anti-drug education program.
And, Lipton also talked about drug-use. He did not lecture in that, “Do not do it” kind of way. It was more of a ”Think about what you are doing” discussion, which I think is good advice for life in general, not just for drug-use.
It was an interesting way to end a university class, certainly it was unexpected. In this class, I think I should start expecting the unexpected.
Tags: Communications, education, media, sex
